Mendes, just one fight removed from a featherweight title challenge against champion Jose Aldo, on Saturday stopped Cody McKenzie just 31 seconds into the first round with a TKO.

The main-card bout was part of Saturday’s UFC 148 event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.

McKenzie threw an outside leg kick early in the fight, which Mendes caught. And in one fluid motion, Mendes landed a perfectly place body shot to McKenzie. The punch to the midsection dropped him to the canvas, and Mendes took advantage – pouncing and delivering hammer fists until the fight was stopped.

“We knew that was something that was going to work against Cody,” Mendes said. “It’s something we worked on a lot in our camp. He’s got a long body, and we took advantage of it.”

McKenzie was making his debut at featherweight after going 2-2 in the UFC as a lightweight. The owner of an amazing 11 guillotine choke wins in his 13 victories, McKenzie never got a chance to try to work for his patented “McKenzietine” against Mendes, a Team Alpha Male member.

“It’s very rewarding to go through a long and hard training camp with the best fighters in the world and to get in the Octagon and get it done fast like that,” Mendes said. “I had seen what he had done in past fights and I was prepared.”

Mendes (12-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) got back in the win column after suffering the first loss of his career this past January, a first-round knockout loss to Aldo in the main event of UFC 142 in Brazil. McKenzie (13-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC) now has dropped three of his past four fights.

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